some people tell me I got the blood of the land in my voice

For a while there, Bob Dylan seemed to be slowing down with age.  In his youth he was an album factory, cranking out 8 albums between 1962 and 1967, and 9 albums between 1969 and 1976.  But in (ahem) modern times, he dropped off the pace – from 1993′s World Gone Wrong it was four years until Time Out of Mind (arguably the best Dylan* album in existence), another four to Love & Theft, and five more to Modern Times, the longest gap between albums in his career.

I have often argued that as arguably the most significant living musician, Dylan somehow owes it to himself and the rest of us to keep cranking out records while he still can.  It makes me think of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes:

Ever notice how the older people get, the slower they do things? I wonder why that is. I would think that the less life you had left, the faster you’d want to do everything, so you could pack more into the remaining years. You can bet when I’m a geezer like Dad, I’ll be going like a maniac.

Bob seems to have taken Calvin’s philosophy on board of late – as well as releasing his memoirs, a massive triple CD of mostly unreleased studio material, hosting a weekly radio show and touring relentlessly, it has now emerged that he has a new album set for release this year.  Rolling Stone, who have somehow heard the album (bastards), tell us:

The disc has the live-in-the-studio feel of Dylan’s last two studio records, 2001′s Love and Theft and 2006′s Modern Times, but with a seductive border-cafe feel (courtesy of the accordion on every track) and an emphasis on struggling-love songs. The effect — in the opening shuffle, “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’,” the Texas-dancehall jump of “If You Ever Go to Houston” and the waltz “This Dream of You” — is a gnarly turn on early-1970s records like New Morning and Planet Waves.

Sounds fantastic (well, the New Morning part, not so sure about Planet Waves myself).

* or anyone, for that matter